


Objects in Motion

by Hopeful_Romantic



Category: Firefly
Genre: Adult Content, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, PWP, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-07 22:34:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeful_Romantic/pseuds/Hopeful_Romantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Everything in life can be a ceremony,” she responded. “There should be a celebration of each moment.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crash Into Me

**Disclaimer:** Joss is Boss. No copyright infringement is intended and no money was made from this of course. Any similarity to any other story but my own is a coincidence.

 **Title:** Crash into Me (Objects in Motion)  
 **Genre:** Romance(essentially PWP) Malcolm/Inara; incidental mention of Simon/Kaylee  
 **Rating:** Hard R certainly pushing towards NC-17; rated for sexual content  
 **Timeline:** Post TBDM  
 **Author's Notes:** Originally posted as a prompt from my FList. Oh, and yes, I now know that canon back-story says that Inara entered training when she was 12, but 5 works better for my story, so I kind of just went with it.

Language Notes:(as best I know)

 **Tzao-gao:** Crap or damn  
 **Ta ma de:** Damn it  
 **Da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la doo-tze…:** The explosive diarrhea of an elephant!  
 **Ta ma duh:** Another way to say damn it  
 **Shi zi:** Honored Masters/Teachers  
 **Hua qiao tang huang:** fancy dandy  
 **Run-tse duh fwo-tzoo:** Dear/Merciful Buddha  
 **Wo de tien ah:** Dear God in Heaven  
 **Bao bei:** Baby/darling  
 **Tsai boo shr:** No way!

 

**_Crash Into Me_ **

 

 _“Tzao-gao!”_ Malcolm swore, awkwardly trying to hold a mirror in one hand and scissors in the other. _“Gorram_ stupid…” he muttered.

“Ouch,” he dropped the scissors abruptly as the scarred edges nicked his fingers.

“What _are_ you trying to do?” Inara asked as she entered Serenity’s open galley.

“What does it look like I’m tryin’ to do woman?” Mal asked testily as he retrieved his scissors from the floor and proceeded to once more try and clip his dark hair.

Inara raised one elegant brow but otherwise made no response.

_“Ta ma de!”_

“Mal, here, let me help,” Inara offered, stepping forward to try and take the scissors from him. “Before you do any permanent damage,” she couldn’t help adding.

Malcolm glared, sucking his fingertip. “I’m a big boy, Inara, I can trim my own hair,” he practically growled.

Gracefully, she offered him a placating gesture and moved instead to the cupboards in the cooking area.

 _“Da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la doo-tze…”_ Malcolm swore again, this time as the mirror fell from his hands and cracked as it bounced off of the dining table before hitting the floor.

“Malcolm…” Inara walked back to him as he bent down to retrieve the mirror and dump it unceremoniously on the table. “Mal, let me help you.”

He half-glared, but finally gave her a quiet nod.

“Bring one of those taller crates over,” she directed.

“Why?” Malcolm asked suspiciously.

Inara made no other reply but to simply wait quietly for the captain to do as she had requested.

“Sit,” she directed him and he sat down heavily in the dark wooden chair nearest the crate. “And give me those,” she ordered, holding out a hand for the dull silver scissors that Mal still gripped in an awkward hand.

Malcolm handed them to her.

“Wait here.”

“What? Wait, where are you goin?” he asked as she started to leave the galley.

“I’ll be right back. If we’re going to do this, it should be done properly.”

Mal waited until Inara had left in the direction of her shuttle, then muttered, “I didn’t know there was a _proper_ way to cut a little hair. It’s just scissors and snip, and try to keep your ears.”

For a moment, he contemplated just taking his scissors and seeing if he couldn’t find Kaylee. But when Mal looked around, he realized that Inara had taken them with her.

“Of course…” he grumbled. He was about to go seeking her out when Inara returned, carrying a small, intricately carved cherrywood case.

Malcolm watched her with a mild sense of alarm as she set the lacquered box on the table and opened it. Carefully, she started withdrawing items.

“What’s all that for?” he asked. “All I’m needin’ is a little trim.”

“I told you, if we’re going to do this, we should do it properly,” Inara replied serenely.

“And ya need all that?” Mal asked incredulously with a dip of his head in the direction of the box and its items.

The Companion made no response and instead took a small vial with her as she walked over to the cooking area. She ducked down and removed a dented basin from one of the lower cupboards.

“I don’t wanna be smellin’ like any _gorram_ flowers there, Inara,” Malcolm said when he saw her place a few drops from the vial into the basin before filling it with water.

“Relax, Mal.”

Inara carried the basin carefully to the crate and set it down behind Malcolm in his chair.

“Lean back,” she directed the captain. “And take off your shirt.”

Malcolm eyed her warily, but slowly did as she asked.

“Now close your eyes.”

He gave her another mildly apprehensive look.

“Unless you prefer soap in them?” Inara suggested mildly.

“I thought you was just cuttin’ my hair,” Mal grumbled suspiciously.

“Mal,” she chided softly.

“All right… all right,” he conceded and leaned back in the chair, tilting his head back over the basin that had been set on the crate. Slowly, he closed his eyes.

He had expected the first washes of warm water through his hair, but when he felt Inara’s graceful fingers start to gently massage his scalp, Mal’s eyes flew open.

 _“Ta ma duh!”_ he swore violently when soap stung his eyes.

“I told you to keep your eyes closed,” Inara admonished him. “Here, here… hold still.”

She wiped the soap away gently with the soft cotton towel that she had brought with her. “Are you all right?”

“I just got _gorram_ soap in my eyes when all I was tryin’ to do was get a little haircut,” he hissed. “How do you think I am?”

“I think you’ve had a lot worse and you’ll be okay,” Inara replied almost lightly. She brushed the soft cloth over his closed eyelids once more, clearing away any lingering trace of soap.

“Relax,” she directed gently.

“ _Relax_ , she says,” he mumbled. “Relax.”

But after a moment, as Inara began to wash his hair once more, Malcolm's body began to follow the Companion's direction with an involuntary ease. The soothing sounds of falling water; Inara’s gentle hands; the soft stillness of nighttime on Serenity all began to calm him.

Of course, once he was relaxed, Malcolm began to notice all the other little things that he always tried to ignore in any situation where he found himself close to Inara. Things like the smooth rustle of her silk dress; the subtle scent of jasmine that always seemed to be about the Companion; the soft way she breathed; all of it seemed to suddenly be pressing in on his new found calm.

“Inara…” he said far more quietly than he had intended.

If she had heard him, she didn’t acknowledge it as she continued to work her fingers through Malcolm’s hair.

“Nara…” this time, it was nearly a sigh as the Companion’s movements became almost caressing.

Malcolm felt Inara startle a bit and her hands, while still soothing, became less caressing in their task. She poured more water, rinsing free the last of the soap, then carefully dried his hair with the cotton towel.

“Sit up,” she directed, using the simple direction to regain her momentary lapse of control.

The captain shifted in the wooden chair, making it creak almost too loudly in the still room as he straightened himself up and pressed into the back of the chair.

“This the part where ya finally get to trimmin’ my hair?” Malcolm teased.

“Sit still,” she admonished in a soft voice. “I wouldn’t want to get an ear,” she whispered into said appendage, causing him to swallow softly as he felt her breath brush against his skin.

With a small smile that Malcolm couldn’t see, Inara began to carefully trim his hair with precise, simple snips of her golden scissors.

After a few moments with only the soft sounds of the scissors and their breathing, the Companion finally spoke. “You said that you could trim your own hair…”

“I can,” Mal replied simply.

“That explains so much,” Inara teased.

“Well, maybe it’s not as fancified and perfect like what you can do, but it suits me just fine,” Malcolm volleyed back.

Inara stilled her hands and considered the man before her. “Maybe you’re right,” she said almost too softly for him to hear.

“But I’m not suggestin’ you should feel the need to be stoppin' or nothin,” he said quickly.

Again, Inara smiled quietly to herself and continued.

“My Ma used to cut my hair when I was little,” Malcolm said after a moment.

Inara listened carefully, charmed by how soft and quiet his voice had become. He drew her in with the small glimpse of the man beneath all the bravo and bluster.

“She was always real gentle-like. And she’d sing when she’d do it,” the captain continued quietly, his voice colored like sepia memories.

“Only time she really ever sang… She had a pretty voice, my Ma. It was kinda unexpected-like, such a pretty voice comin’ outta such a hard life. Kinda like a nightingale, you know… just unexpected and beautiful in the darkness.”

Inara listened quietly, letting Malcolm draw her in with the unexpected intimacy.

“Then one day, I got it inta my fool head that boys of nine and half don’t let their ma’s cut their hair. I got some big ole shears from the shed and just…”

Malcolm made a kind of rough cutting motion in front of his chest.

“Declared to my Ma that I was a man grown and I had no need for her to be cuttin’ my hair anymore.”

The captain fell into a thoughtful silence.

“I miss her singin,” he said eventually.

The silence quietly faded from sepia to blue.

“I never really knew my mother,” Inara offered softly. “I entered the Training House when I was five. But Nandi used to cut my hair. She would make it perfect, except for one small part, just at the nape of my neck. There, she’d cut it close and short.”

Inara slowly made her way to Malcolm’s side, still clipping his hair in a neat cut.

“She would call it our own small rebellion.”

“Must have been hard, not knowin’ your own kin,” Malcolm said in a low voice.

“I don’t know…” she replied softly. “It’s hard to miss what you never knew. Besides, there was always Nandi; and I had my _Shi zi_ ; my lessons.”

“You miss it,” Mal said softly.

Inara slowly made her way to stand in front of him.

“Things were…” she considered her words, looking into his storm blessed eyes. “Less complicated then…”

Inara bumped his knees in a movement that she still managed look graceful as she prompted him to open his legs. For a moment, the captain couldn’t take his eyes off of her hips and the way that the smooth silk of her dress moved over her skin.

But then he opened his legs and she stepped between them. Her sweet jasmine scent enfolded the captain in its embrace and he inhaled deeply.

“Almost done?” he asked in a slightly strained voice as Inara stepped closer. Malcolm could feel her warmth like the radiance of the sun brushing over his skin.

“Almost,” Inara replied, her voice in harmony with the soft snips of her scissors. She shifted, and Malcolm found himself almost hungrily watching the delicate beat of her pulse in the hollow of her throat.

The intimacy between them shifted to something a lot heavier and much more profound than either of them would have cared to admit was possible.

“What’s that you put in the water before?” the captain asked, just to have something to say.

“Sandalwood,” the Companion replied for much the same reason.

“I like it,” Mal admitted before he could quite stop himself. “Or leastwise, I'm glad that you didn’t use something to make me smell like some _hua qiao tang huang_ ,” he added, trying to undercut his unexpected admission. “Though it _is_ kinda…flowery now that I smell it.”

“That's my... it's my perfume...” Inara explained quietly.

Malcolm couldn’t help breathing in their entwined scents, so he tried to ignore the heady way it made him feel. But now that he recognized what was happening, he was finding it harder to stop himself from imaging much more interesting ways that he and Inara’s scents could merge together.

It was almost a relief when the Companion moved out of the circle of Malcolm’s legs and over to his other side. He grabbed for his white shirt and held bunched in his lap, trying to hide just how much his thoughts were racing from his mind and to other parts of his anatomy instead.

“So… you just happen to have a hair cuttin’ kit about then? Lots of call for that? With your clients I mean? Suppose there’s even some kinda ceremony, seein' as how you seem to have one for just ‘bout everything.”

Clearly needing to hide back in the familiar waters of the more antagonist aspect of their relationship, Inara took the bait quickly. “Everything in life can be a ceremony,” she responded. “There should be a celebration of each moment.”

“Seen lots of moments in life darlin’ and most of ‘em sure as hell weren’t worth celebratin.’ Lessin’ of course you mean celebratin’ survivin’ ‘em.”

“Those moments are all the more reason to celebrate the ones that you have to be alive in. For all of it Captain, there are still wonders in this Universe.”

She stepped behind him finally and set her scissors down.

“Wonders…” he scoffed. “Name a one that makes havin’ to endure the others worth it, darlin.”

“Lean back,” she directed him.

He did so. “I suppose you want me to close my eyes again.”

This time, he did so without a moment’s hesitation.

Gently, Inara washed warm water through Malcolm’s hair again.

“Beauty…” she said softly.

“What?”

“Beauty is worth it,” she explained.

Mal made a small, rude noise.

Inara gently ran her fingers through his hair, releasing the loose strands.

“Passion…”

Again, Malcolm scoffed, but as Inara continued to slip her fingers through his hair, his voice became a little less harsh.

“The search for some sort of perfection and serenity in this life…”

“No such thing darlin,” the captain replied, but his voice was soft.

“Family…” she said, knowing that it was the one thing that the fiercely loyal and protective captain couldn’t scoff at.

“Mmmm…” Malcolm’s face softened as the quietly loving man hidden beneath all his masks appeared.

Inara’s hands became uncharacteristically unsteady as she watched the water slip down the captain’s shoulders and over his chest.

“Now I see why you asked for my shirt off,” he teased gently. “And here I was hopin’ it might be for different reasons,” he added, just to get a response.

“Love…” Inara whispered, ignoring the verbal baiting and letting her hands trail after the water.

Malcolm shivered in the wake of their passing and would have said something more, but suddenly, Inara’s lips were on his and he had no more thoughts capable of being formed into words.

Inara shifted, leaning over further, heedless of Malcolm’s wet hair against the silk of her dress.

“ _Run-tse duh fwo-tzoo_ ,” Inara gasped suddenly as she broke the kiss and tried to whirl away.

For a moment, Malcolm was too dazed to do anything, but he recovered quickly and reached for Inara’s hand. He grabbed it and brought her back to him.

“Nara…”

Mal surged upwards, still not releasing his grip on Inara’s hand. For a moment, he met her dark eyes, trying to read something in their depths.

“ _Wo de tien ah…_ ” she whispered, then reached for him, her lips colliding with his.

“ _Nara…_ ” Malcolm gasped before deepening the kiss. “Nara…” His hands buried themselves in her dark curls, seeking the nape of her neck. He found the strands there that had been purposely cut short.

Gracefully then, Inara moved to settle herself on his lap, not breaking their kiss, even as she brushed his shirt out of the way. Malcolm’s hands went to her hips as hers slid to his shoulders so that she could brace herself.

They kissed until they were both breathless and almost dizzy.

“ _Bao bei…_ ” Malcolm half-whispered, half-gasped.

His breathless sounds became deep throated moans though as Inara started to slowly and deliberately rock her hips.

“ _Mal…I…Mal…_ ” She licked her lips, and Malcolm watched, fascinated.

“Oh, sweet merciful Buddha…” Mal groaned, rocking his own hips upwards to meet Inara’s movements. He was rewarded with her own aching gasp and her shift to bring herself as close as she possibly could. She ground herself almost painfully against his erection.

“ _Mal…_ ” she groaned.

“Yes… _bao bei…_ ”

Malcolm brought his mouth to her nipple and suckled it through the wet silk. Inara gripped his shoulders in response, her nails digging in slightly. They dug in further when the captain brought his teeth to bear, capturing her nipple gently through the fabric.

“Oh God…” she gasped.

Malcolm shifted his attention to her other nipple, unbelievably aroused at the sight of the dark circle beneath the light peach silk.

“ _Bao bei_ , do know how beautiful you are?”

“To you?” she asked, her voice making it clear just how important the answer was to her. “I’m beautiful to you, Mal?”

“Nara… you know you are…”

“But to _you_ , Mal. I’m beautiful to you?”

“Oh, _bao bei_ ,” Malcolm met her eyes, letting her finally see the truth in them. “You’re the most beautiful thing in my ‘Verse. You _are_ my celebration…”

The smile that she gave him was the most honest smile she had ever shown to anyone since entering the Training House as a child.

Malcolm lost himself in kissing her then, moaning into her mouth as she found just the right spot to rock against him. He hadn’t thought that he could be any more aroused, but his body proved him wrong as he felt her moist heat, even through the fabric of his pants.

“I need to touch you, ’Nara.”

“Yes…”

Malcolm began to bunch the light fabric of Inara’s dress in his hands, drawing it further up her leg. When he finally had it high enough, he slid one of his hands beneath it, searching for the sweet moisture that he had felt.

Suddenly they froze, hearing Kaylee and Simon’s laughter just seconds before they tumbled into the galley, half-dressed themselves.

Inara was up out of Malcolm’s lap and out the opposite doorway before either of the young people had even realized that there was anyone else in the room.

“ _Tsai boo shr_ ,” Kaylee gasped in laughing response to whatever story Simon had been telling her.

Malcolm was up from the chair himself and had almost made it to the door when Kaylee turned.

“Cap’n…” she said in surprise. “You’re up?”

He practically dove behind the counter of the cooking area, bracing his hands on the countertop.

The pretty mechanic tilted her head thoughtfully.

“Cap’n… did you get a haircut?”


	2. Finding Peace Out of Serenity

**Disclaimer:** Joss is Boss. No copyright infringement is intended and no money was made from this of course. Any similarity to any other story but my own is a coincidence.  
  
"A Love Before Time;"  Crouching Tiger; Hidden Dragon; Tan Dun; 2000  
  
 **Title:** Finding Peace Out of Serenity (Objects in Motion - part 2)  
 **Genre:** PWP; Malcolm/Inara  
 **Rating:** NC-17; rated for sexual content  
 **Timeline:** Post TBDM; immediately after Crash  
 **Author's Notes:** This is a repost as the last one got eaten by the web-monsters. Originally posted as a prompt from my FList.  
  
Language Notes: (as best I know)  
  
 **Ai ya:** Basically an exclamation or sound of disgust/frustration; roughly 'oh no' or 'damn' depending on who you ask  
 **Bao yu de pu sa… wo bu zhi dao wo chu fan laio nin… Dan qing you ci bei…:** Blessed Buddha I do not know how I have offended you - But please have mercy  
 **Wuh de tyen, ah:** Dear God in Heaven  
 **Qing:** Please  
 **Gai si:** Damn  
 **Yu ben… ji nu… ren…:** Stupid, frustrating man  
 **Bao bei:** An endearment meaning variously: baby, sweetheart, darling, or beloved  
 **Wo ai ni:** I love you  
 **Dong ma:** As a question; understand  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 **Finding Peace Out of Serenity**  
 _(Part Two of Crash Into Me)_  
  
  
Malcolm took the steps to Inara’s shuttle two at a time, with every intention of confronting the whirlwind of a woman that had just changed the whole axis of the universe on him. One way or another, the captain wanted a reckoning for the event. The problem was, Malcolm didn’t know what kind of answer he was seeking.  
  
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He knew the answer that he wanted, it just depended on which part of him was asking.  
  
“ _Ai ya…_ ”  
  
Malcolm practically leapt the final two steps, but when he finally reached the shuttle door, he suddenly found himself hesitating. He stood there, poised on the knife’s edge of desire, unexpectedly uncertain that he wanted to endure the cut of it.  
  
But then he heard it, a soft, feminine sound, part pleasure, part frustration. It fell lightly from the smallest opening of the shuttle door. The purely male part of Malcolm’s awareness recognized the sound and responded with reckless disregard for any other consideration. The more sentimental parts of his psyche, whispered about love and longing and jumped onto the bandwagon. Only a hard earned sense of cynicism and jaded reasoning held Malcolm in check.  
  
“ _Bao yu de pu sa… wo bu zhi dao wo chu fan laio nin…_ ”  
  
The sound called to him again.  
  
“ _Dan qing you ci bei…_ ”  
  
Malcolm opened the shuttle door silently, just enough to see inside and gauge the situation.  
  
“ _Wuh de tyen, ah_ ,” he said under his breath.  
  
Laid out on the red satin sheets was the sight that Malcolm Reynolds was certain was his own personal vision of heaven or hell, because either way, it was going to linger with him. And depending on what he did with the memory, he was either going to be blest or tormented with it.  
  
Inara’s damp peach silk dress and her even more delicate under-things were tossed heedlessly on floor, testament enough to the state of the Companion’s mind. The woman herself lay naked on the bed, and the part that threatened to shatter Malcolm into a million pieces of longing and desire was what she was doing with her hands.  
  
They moved restlessly over her body, seemingly with no direction or purpose, so unfocused were their movements.  
  
“ _Ai ya…_ ” she swore softly, brushing her fingertips lightly over her nipples.  
  
She slid her hands slowly down her body to press them low on her belly.  
  
“Mal…” Inara said in a low voice.  
  
The captain held his breath, almost certain that the Companion had sensed his presence. Though for the moment, he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted more, for that to be the case, or for Inara’s gasp to have been prompted by something far more primal in nature.  
  
But kohl dark eyes never turned his way and her hands slid lower.  
  
“Mal…”  
  
She started to move her hand, her fingers still restless, still seeking. She arched into her hand and made soft, yearning sounds that Malcolm felt low in his own belly.  
  
“ _Qing_ ,” she asked. “Please…” she almost begged the air.  
  
Suddenly she stopped and sat up, frustration clear on her face.  
  
“ _Gai si_!” she swore, as close to a lack of control as Malcolm had ever seen her.  
  
“ _Yu ben… ji nu… ren…yu ben…_ ” she muttered before making a harsh sound of disgusted frustration. “Stupid, beautiful, frustrating…”  
  
Inara took deep breath before becoming silent and thoughtful. Slowly she brushed her fingertips over her lips.  
  
“ _Bao bei_ ,” she murmured.  
  
Slowly she started to trail her hand down her throat and down between her breasts. “ _Bao bei…_ ”  
  
“ _Darlin…_ ” she drawled in as close an imitation to Malcolm’s inflections as she could while she moved her hands back to her nipples.  
  
But after a few moments she stopped and unexpectedly turned in Malcolm’s direction, swinging her feet to the floor.  
  
The moment hung heavy between them, threatening to either explode or radically change everything.  
  
“Don’t stop on my account, darlin,” the captain drawled as casually as he could, not certain what he was doing, but willing to do anything to keep Inara from busting him clean on the head with something heavy.  
  
“Malcolm Reynolds… what are…”  
  
“Not sure we finished my haircut back there, _bao bei_ ,” he interrupted as playfully as he could, though even he could hear the undercurrents of something deeper in his voice. He sought Inara’s dark eyes with his own and stepped into the warm shuttle, closing the door quietly shut behind himself.  
  
“Mal…”  
  
“I’m thinkin’ maybe we should finish what we started,” he said softly.  
  
“Mal…” Inara repeated, but her own voice was soft.  
  
The captain stepped closer.  
  
“What do you think?”  
  
He stood in front of her.  
  
“ _Bao bei_?”  
  
Inara tilted her head as she looked up into his eyes.  
  
“Are you sure?” she asked carefully.  
  
“No, but then again,” he said in a low voice. “Neither are you.”  
  
Inara licked her lips before biting the lower one quietly. Her small nod was almost imperceptible, but Malcolm noted the quiet acceptance.  
  
“Well then…don’t stop on my account, darlin’…” he drawled again with a slightly wicked grin, almost daring her.  
  
Inara smiled slightly herself before slowly sliding a graceful hand from the hollow of her throat and down to her breast.  
  
Malcolm swallowed against the sudden dryness in his own throat.  
  
Still keeping eye contact, Inara brought her fingertips to her nipple with a soft sigh before reaching for Malcolm’s hand with her free one. She placed his hand on top of the one she was using to tease herself with. Then she held his hand in place with her other hand. She kept his hand there as she caressed herself.  
  
“Nara…”  
  
She lay back, forcing Malcolm to sit next to her on the bed. Still keeping his hand trapped between hers, she slid their joined hands slowly down her body.  
  
“Mal…” she murmured.  
  
She slid her hand lower.  
  
“ _Bao bei…_ ” she whispered.  
  
She slid her fingers through her dark curls, then into herself.  
  
“Nara…”  
  
She smiled when she saw Malcolm’s eyes go dark and hooded. Then slowly, she began to pleasure herself, arching up into their joined hands.  
  
“ _Mmmm… ahhh… mmm…_ ” she sighed, making sounds that Malcolm was certain were designed to drive him mad.  
  
“You’re doing that on purpose,” he accused aloud in a teasing tone, though he had never mentioned her offense.  
  
She smiled quietly and pressed his hand more tightly on top of hers, forcing him to lace his fingers with her lower hand. Their joined hands moved together, his fingers sliding wetly against hers and brushing her curls.  
  
“I’m not stopping on your account,” she teased in return with a breathless voice.  
  
After a few moments, she removed the hand holding his in place and slid it upwards to circle her nipple.  
  
“I can see that darlin,” Malcolm drawled in a lazy, sexy tone. Then his free hand went to Inara’s other breast and she gasped, arching into his touch before she sat partway up to kiss him.  
  
As they kissed each other breathless, Inara slid her lower hand out from beneath his and moaned into his mouth when he slid his fingers into her. Malcolm used startlingly deft touches to push her to the edge, but not over it.  
  
“Mal… _qing…_ oh please…”  
  
Suddenly, he stopped.  
  
“Mal?” she gasped.  
  
“Tell me what you need.”  
  
“What?” Inara asked, dazed.  
  
“I need a center ‘Nara. You whirl me around… get my ‘Verse spinnin’… I need a center…”  
  
“Malcom… I don’t…”  
  
“Tell me what you need, Inara… and not just this…”  
  
He moved his hand, making her moan softly.  
  
“Tell me what you really need,” he insisted.  
  
She took a deep breath. “You…” she finally whispered. “God help me, but I need you, you exasperating, confusing…”  
  
“Beautiful…” he added with a charmingly smug grin. “Don’t forget that…”  
  
Inara narrowed her eyes slightly. “Frustrating man…”  
  
Malcolm met her eyes with his; held her with them.  
  
“ _Wo ai ni_ , Inara…”  
  
She looked into his stormy eyes, seeing how dangerously close he had allowed her to be with those words.  
  
“ _Wo ai ni_ , Inara,” he admitted again in a deeply scared and utterly sincere voice.  
  
She could kill everything that had not died in him at Serenity and they both knew it. If she ran, as was her wont when scared, she would kill him. He knew it, and yet, he said those words to her.  
  
“ _Dong ma_?” he asked.  
  
“ _The world I know fades away… but you stay_ ,” she replied softly. “You have become my world…” she replied in the poetry with which she was familiar. “ _Dong ma_?  
  
She kissed him with a passionate grace.  
  
“Lay back, _bao bei…_ ” he murmured when they finally broke the kiss.  
  
She did, watching as he removed his clothes finally. He moved to the edge of the bed and wrapped two large hands around her ankles. Gently he pulled, bringing her to the very edge of the mattress before he knelt before her. Slowly, he urged her to open her legs. He looked down the length of her body to meet her eyes.  
  
“You have to meet me halfway, Inara… We can’t do this any other way…”  
  
She bit her lip and this time it was an unconscious nervous gesture.  
  
“I never left Serenity Valley, Inara… just like you never really left Madrassa… The only way this is ever gonna work is if we meet somewhere in the middle.”  
  
He watched her with an almost unnerving intensity.  
  
“I can’t promise I won’t leave…” she admitted finally. “But… but if I do…” Inara took a deep breath. “I’ll come back.”  
  
Malcolm slid his hands up her legs and to her hips, never taking his eyes from hers, unexpectedly letting her see all his quietly naked vulnerability.  
  
“I love you too, Mal,” she finally confessed and he watched, entranced with seeing her masks start to fall away.  
  
He smiled and brought his lips to the inside of her ankle. Then ever so slowly, he started to trail hot kisses up her leg, listening as Inara’s breathing changed the higher up her body he moved.  
  
“Let go…” he whispered in a voice rough with desire. “Surrender with me…” His breath brushed against her dark curls.  
  
“Mal…” Inara protested a moment.  
  
“Let go, darlin’… I’ll catch you…”  
  
Inara hesitated a moment more, then made a small movement upwards. Malcolm brought his mouth to her and she let out a ragged breath as he tasted her. With an unskilled reverence he drank her in until she came with an unpracticed cry of joy.  
  
“You’re so beautiful…” he murmured.  
  
She trembled beneath him as he positioned himself above her. “I’ve never known anyone so beautiful.”  
  
He started to slide into her, but she stopped him and shifted until she straddled him instead. Then ever so slowly, she slid herself down his length. Her sigh entwined with his as she started to move in a graceful, familiar ways; practiced cants of her hips.  
  
Suddenly, Malcolm shifted beneath her and Inara gasped. His hands splayed wide and warm on her hips and he sat up. She lost her rhythm with a cry as he moved deeper in her.  
  
“No…let go, ‘Nara…” he urged her before kissing her with an almost rough passion.  
  
Malcolm gripped her hips tightly, supporting her as he rose up from the bed, carrying her. Inara wrapped herself tightly around him as he maneuvered them both to a shuttle wall.  
  
“Let go, ‘Nara…” he insisted, pressing her against the tapestry covered metal. “I want to see you lose control,” he growled into her ear.  
  
“Oh God…”  
  
He thrust into her, bracing her against the wall and tangling his hands in her dark hair. His fingers sought the deliberately short strands hidden from view, making sure that she knew that they were what he was trying to find. He tilted her head back.  
  
“I want to see you lose control, and know it’s because of me.”  
  
He shifted, pushing himself as deeply into her as he could, seeking her cries of pleasure as determinedly as he had ever sought the Black or freedom in it.  
  
“I want to see the real Inara; my ‘Nara; my _bao bei…_ "  
  
He slid his hands out of her hair and back to her hips.  
  
“I love you, ‘Nara…”  
  
Her voice broke as she cried out in pleasure. Malcolm nuzzled her neck and she tilted her head, giving him better access. He bit gently, leaving a mark. He wrote his name into her skin, declarations of love, and she didn’t stop him; didn’t want to stop him. She let him mark her in ways that she had always forbidden before Malcolm Reynolds had come into her life.  
  
“Come for me, _bao bei…_ ”  
  
And she did, the orgasm coming hard and sudden. She cried out and shuddered around him.  
  
Carefully then, Malcolm made his way back to the red satin sheets of her bed. He lay back, keeping her above him and moving slowly and gently in her until she shifted, straddling him.  
  
“When she ought to fall,” he murmured, knowing that Inara couldn’t know what he was referring to, but trusting that she could see his meaning in his eyes.  
  
She did look into his eyes a long moment, watching his walls fall down before her.  
  
“Be with me, Mal…” she whispered. “I want you to be with me.”  
  
“For as long as I can darlin.’ Long as the ‘Verse will allow…”  
  
“Even though I turn you about…” Inara asked. “Leave you lost without a compass or direction?”  
  
“Even so… long as you turn ‘bout with me…”  
  
Inara smiled and moved. “We’ll just have to be lost together…” she murmured.  
  
“Surrender with me,” she echoed then. “Come with me…”  
  
Her gravity pulled to his and they came together, her bright cry entwining with his.  
  
“ _Wuh de tyen, ah…_ ” he cried.  
  
As the last shudders left them, Inara settled herself carefully in Malcolm’s arms. She shivered as his fingertips idly traced the dark mark he had left on the curve of her neck and shoulder.  
  
“Ya gonna hide it?” he asked, trying to sound as if he were making simple conversation.  
  
In response, Inara shifted until she half-lay on top of him. She trailed delicate fingertips over the tracery of scratches and half moon marks on his shoulder and collarbone, the places that she had held when he had had her against the wall. She seemed almost fascinated with them.  
  
“We were taught how to give love marks,” she murmured. “There are very specific patterns, given if asked for…” her voice trailed off and Inara studied Malcolm’s face, uncertain how he would react to a reference to her calling, even one so subtle.  
  
“Oh, I asked for ‘em…” he replied in a low voice. “But I reckon mine say nothin’ your teachers ever meant you to say, _bao bei_. And I reckon you ain’t ever had much cause to lose control before…” he said, the pride clear in his voice.  
  
“Malcolm Reynolds…” she sputtered sliding off of his chest. “You are the most…”  
  
He laughed in the face of Inara’s rising indignation and kissed her softly.  
  
“Well… that’s one thing we ain’t got any cause to be worryin’ ’bout,” he drawled. “Us bein’ together ain’t gonna change the fundamentals. We’re still gonna push each others’ buttons,” replied to her questioning look. “Course, now I know a lot more of those…” he drawled, brushing a gentle hand along the small of Inara’s back, a place that he had discovered caused her to shiver in the most appealing way.  
  
“You are the most…”  
  
“I know, I know… the most infuriating, frustrating… irresistible man… and that’s why you love me,” he interrupted with shameless grin before kissing her, preventing Inara from voicing any protests.  
  
“God help me,” Inara said with a quiet sigh when they finally ended the kiss.  
  
“That I’ll grant you an _amen_ for… you’re gonna need it if you plan on lovin’ me…” Malcolm agreed, settling Inara firmly in the cradle of his arms.  
  
“Nothing in the Verse will stop me,” she said.  
  
“Been hangin’ ‘round River and Kaylee too long,” Malcolm murmured. “I think it’s makin’ you a bit whimsical in the brainpan too.”  
  
“Ever the romantic,” Inara replied, running her hand tenderly through his hair.  
  
“ _The world I know fades away… but you stay_. You have become my world… And don’t look so shocked,” he said without looking to see her expression. “I may have read more than one poem. Just never had cause before for recitin’ love poetry.”  
  
He did turn his head then to look into Inara’s kohl dark eyes.  
  
“ _If the years take away every memory that I have. I would still know the way that would lead me back to your side. The stars may die, but the light that I see in your eyes will burn there always…_ ”  
  
“My heart never had a reason to hear it before,” Inara whispered.  
  
“I’m not going anywhere, Mal. I’m here with you… I’m where I belong…” she vowed before kissing him softly. “ _Wo ai ni, bao bei_ ,” she said as softly as a prayer. “Stay with me tonight?” she asked.  
  
Mal nodded and pulled the sheets up about them. “I’m not goin’ anywhere, _bao bei…_ not now that I finally found me somethin’ worth celebratin’… now that I’ve found some peace out of Serenity…”


End file.
